Lynchburg center signs agreement with University of Akron

The Center for Advanced Engineering and Research (CAER) in Bedford County has picked up another partner. The center said Thursday that it has established a five-year, master research agreement with The University of Akron in Ohio.

Under terms of the agreement, UA and CAER will work together in developing research and educational projects in the area of nuclear energy.

The university will provide personnel and expertise to the CAER for administrative, research and educational support services.
CAER will provide funding through federal, state and industry sources and assist in managing the research projects with the university.

“This partnership will strengthen and expand the College of Engineering’s nuclear engineering certificate program by allowing us to offer graduate students new educational and research opportunities using world-class simulators and control rooms,” Wieslaw K. Binienda, chair of UA’s Department of Civil Engineering, said in a statement.
“Roughly half of our nuclear engineering students attend part-time while working full-time in the nuclear and power industry, and the benefits of this partnership will directly transfer back to those employers.”

The Babcock & Wilcox Co. has a testing facility for a prototype of a modular scalable nuclear reactor that is located at the center.

CAER has similar partnerships with the University of Virginia, Virginia Tech, James Madison University and Liberty University’s School of Engineering & Computational Sciences (SECS).